Revenge of the Carrionites
by FudgeLove
Summary: Set in modern day London a young would-be architect encounters a very strange man and his Blue Police Box. -Set during the days of the 10th Doctor aka David Tennant.


A customary drizzle pattered on the buildings and flats of London, painting the city a muted gray. However the rain, like always, did nothing to prevent the sprawling city's occupants from going about their daily business. Likewise the rain did nothing to slow the construction project occurring in the theater district where an old theater was in the process of being replaced by a brand new one that had been commissioned by the crown.

Construction workers scurried about cursing the rain as they went about their business and bulldozers carted the rubble away and brought the supplies in as the large theater went up, all under the supervision of one very nervous and wet grad student who had been put in charge of seeing to the construction of the building, which was set to open in three months time. So for the day while the real brain behind the new building, the architect, sat comfy and dry in one of the trailers on the edge of the premises, she was stuck monitoring the workers.

"Hey kid, where's the boss, we've got an annoyed guy from 'er majesty who wants something wit' 'im," a construction worker grunted to the boss's underling.

"Oh, uh, ok, sure, where is he?" the young woman asked nervously, annoyed that he had called her a kid. She was just a grad student, and he was her elder technically, but it still irked her to be called a child. However she knew that it would be bad to argue with the workers so she bit her tongue.

"Waitin' by the gates," the man grunted with a gesture towards the entrance of the site.

So the wet grad student clambered down from her perch atop a small platform from which she had been overseeing the construction. She scurried around the workers who acted like mindless ants, performing their assigned tasks without a thought to the people who might be walking around and who might get hit by any number of objects being carried as had been the case on several occasions for the underpaid student intern.

"Well it's about time! Do you realize how long I've been forced to wait here in this rain?!" the business man demanded as the girl reached him.

She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, the man was perfectly dry in his trench coat, umbrella, and black bowler while she had been outside all day in a hooded jacket that did nothing to keep off the rain or keep out the chilly wind that sprang up from time to time.

"Sorry for the delay, if you'll just follow me," she said with a civil tongue when all she wanted to do was tell him off about how easy he had it.

"And just who the hell are you kid?" he demanded, following her nonetheless towards the trailers.

"I am _not_ a kid, my name is Tyler Cole, I'm one of the grad students working for Mr. Nettles," she stated through gritted teeth as she pushed a wet lock of brown hair out of her hazel eyes.

She could have sworn that he had mumbled something about graduate students and their uselessness but she chose to ignore it.

"And here we are sir," she said stonily as they reached the trailer that the head architect, Mr. Nettles, was set up in.

Mr. Nettles was a funny old man, he had been an architect for longer then she'd been alive and he was famous for the commissions given to him by the queen herself. Tyler had always heard about his strange behavior, but lately it seemed like he was almost crazy. He had even gone so far as to make a last minute addition to the building! She often found herself wondering what had come over the old man, but she figured it had to be something along the lines of senility.

Tyler watched as the man stalked up the wooden steps and into the brightly lit trailer while grumbling about the weather. As the white door closed behind him she promptly stuck her middle finger up into the air before retreating away from the trailer that was now emitting the muted sounds of two men yelling.

A while later as she was about to leave for the day Tyler spotted the business man from earlier strutting out of the construction zone with a sour look upon his face. So, her curiosity ignited, she crossed the work zone, darting between people and pieces of machinery, and made her way to the trailers, specifically the one in which Mr. Nettles worked, whereupon she rapped upon the metal door and was allowed inside with a gruff 'Enter.'

"Mr. Nettles? Is everything alright?" she asked, trying not to drip rainwater onto the floor.

"Yes, yes, it's all fine and dandy," he said sarcastically.

"What did that man want?" she questioned as her eyes drifted around the portable room that was an organized chaos of papers and blueprints.

"He wanted to know 'just what I thought I was doing by making some alterations last minute,' it's not like adding extra supports to the roof are a bad thing! When you've got something this big you've got to make sure that everything stays where it's supposed to. Can't have the roof collapsing now can we? Besides, her majesty has entrusted me with the creation of this new theater! I don't need some young idiot telling me what to do!" he ranted. Then he took a pause to catch his breath, wheezing a little he continued, "This is a historic site after all! I have to make sure everything's perfect!" he said firmly.

"What do you mean a historic site sir?" Tyler repeated, she couldn't remember what had been so special about the rundown theater that had been here before.

"What? You don't know child?" Mr. Nettles asked surprised. He shook his head clucking his tongue in a disapproving manner, "what are they teaching in schools now?" he asked aloud. "This site happens to be the site of the original Globe Theater my dear!" he nearly cried out.

"_The_ Globe Theater? You mean the one in which William Shakespeare's original plays were performed?" She asked in mild awe. She had never been a huge Shakespeare fan but she knew how monumental it was that they were building where the famous Globe Theater used to be.

"The very one, and that is precisely why everything must be perfect. The queen herself has declared that it must have elements of the original architecture, hence the fourteen walls that provide wonderful acoustics. Will you be coming to the opening play my dear? The actual play is being kept very hush-hush you know, but of course it must be something by Shakespeare!" the old man continued on.

"Of course, I love the theater," she said honestly. She may have lacked a certain enthusiasm about simply reading Shakespeare's works in her English classes, however seeing them on stage was an entirely different matter.

Ever since she was a little girl living in the United States, Tyler had loved acting and being a part of the theater. She loved to act and dance, in addition she also loved painting and creating with the visual arts, she always had, and to this day she constantly carried around a thick sketchbook and various pencils and such. So the fact that she, of all the other interns, had been selected to assist in the undertaking of such a large and historic project was an honor.

"Very good, then, well it's only three months away my dear!" Mr. Nettles said jovially, his foul mood seemingly vanished at the prospect of being almost complete with his latest creation.

"Yes sir it is," Tyler said while thinking that if the weather continued, it would be a long three months.

Tyler's forecast proved correct, the weather hardly let up as the months passed and on the few days of sunshine they were granted with, she was stuck in a cramped office reorganizing the filing system while the opening date of the Royal Globe Theater rapidly approached. As the grand opening approached it seemed to her that Mr. Nettles had isolated himself more and more from her and the rest of his employees. She heard rumors among the staff that he had finally lost it. Some people even claimed to have heard him talking to thin air, while others claimed that they had heard him mumbling about witches, and while she was a firm believer in alternate life forms from space, Tyler did not believe in fantasy creatures from legend. She knew it was a tad hypocritical to believe in aliens but not in mythical creatures of old, but in her mind it was rather arrogant of us as humans to believe that we are the only intelligent life forms in the entire universe. Something else had to be out there after all, it could not be just an empty black void. She supposed that if Mr. Nettles had been rumored to have been conversing with aliens she would have been just as skeptical though.

As the days wore on the final interior details were added and the final paperwork was being submitted by frantic secretaries. Men and women in trim black suits scurried in and out of the new building on various errands, none of which, according to a high brow man with wispy white hair, concerned Tyler.

On one of these final days it came to pass that she happened to see a lanky man with messy brown hair and a trim brown pinstripe suit wandering about the exterior of the building, as if inspecting the walls.

"Excuse me? Can I help you sir?" Tyler asked as she trotted up to the man who was about a head taller then herself.

"Hm? Oh yes, right, um, I'm Mr. Smith, just taking a look around," he said waving an identification card in a worn leather case before her eyes. "Tell me, when did construction on this building begin?" he asked quickly, his mind seeming to bounce from one idea to the next.

"The construction? It began a few months ago, the whole city knows about it," Tyler replied. "Just what are you inspecting Mr. Smith?" she then asked, noting that he was different from the usual inspectors.

"Ah, well, I've been away for a while it seems," he said scratching the back of his head. "Well it's a very nice building, it reminds me of something though…can't put my finger on it. Hold on, you're American, what's an American girl doing at a construction site in London?" he asked quizzically.

"Yes I am from America, and in the words of Lee Greenwood, 'I'm proud to be an American,'" Tyler said adding a southern twang to her voice as she spoke while crossing her arms.

"Good ole' American country music," he said with a bemused expression, "but I must ask, what does it _mean_ to be an American in London? Do you still celebrate Independence Day? Hah, that'd be funny, to have the British celebrating the day they lost their wealthiest colony, oh those were the days. Thomas Jefferson, now there's a man who could write, but of course he's no Shakespeare," the strange man rambled.

"Yes, I _do_ celebrate the Fourth of July thank you very much, just as every other American should, and you know what happens whenever I talk about America here? 'Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world,'" she said with a smug look upon her features.

"Hm, now who was it that said that one? Let me think…I really need to brush up on my American history, to much time on the UK I suppose. AHA! Woodrow Wilson! That's who said it!" he said triumphantly, a large grin spreading from ear to ear.

"You know your history," Tyler said with a mild pout as she avoided his eyes, her smug expression wiped off her face.

"Well, can't argue with that," he said cheekily making Tyler roll her eyes. "Ah, here we go," he said as he pulled out a silver object with a flashing blue light on one end that was emitting a small beeping noise. "Oh, now that's interesting, hm…so familiar…what's important about this place? What am I missing?" he mused aloud, clearly not asking Tyler as he began walking down the sidewalk that circled the building. "I'll have to go back to the TARDIS…maybe I'll remember then…hm…" he continued to ramble aloud, and now Tyler was quite positive that he was mad. So she pretended that someone had been calling her and she slipped away from Mr. Smith to go about her work.

Then the day finally came where all of London's elites were invited to the grand opening of the Royal Globe Theater where one of Shakespeare's recently discovered works was to be performed. Mr. Nettles was of course included in the invitations and he had managed to pull enough strings for Tyler to attend, for which she was extremely grateful and honored, the man was like a father, or possibly grandfather, to her.

However the first thing she realized once she got home to her small flat in the somewhat cheaper section of London, graduate students only earned so much working as interns after all, was that she would have to borrow a dress from a friend because she had nothing to that would be seen as acceptable, after all the Queen and the royal family would be there.

After several frantic hours of searching Tyler eventually found a dress that would pass the scrutiny of the other play-goers. However that did nothing to prevent her from feeling a strong urge to crawl into a hole and never emerge as she entered the grandiose lobby that was decorated with large photos and banners advertising the play.

Tyler felt people's stares and it made her uncomfortable. She suddenly felt very self-conscious and was uncomfortably aware of how the little black cocktail dress hugged her frame, and she had to concentrate on not tripping and breaking her ankles with each step she took in the black stilettos she was wearing, and she kept brushing her bangs out of her nervous eyes as she searched for at least one familiar face, hoping to find Mr. Nettles or anyone else who she might recognize.

However the one person she did not expect to see was the strange man from several days ago, Mr. Smith, who was staring intensely at the detailed drawings of the theater on display completely oblivious of the stares of the other guests.

"Mr. Smith wasn't it? I didn't expect to see you here," Tyler said as she approached him. He hadn't changed much, the only difference she could see was that he was wearing a rather strapping tuxedo, however as she glanced at his attire she noticed that he was wearing worn black converse as opposed to proper dress shoes. "Nice converse," she said with a chuckle.

"What's wrong with my converse? I happen to like them very much thank you, not as fun as going barefoot on the moon but that's another story," he said with a grin as he rocked on his heels.

"The moon?" Tyler asked arching an eyebrow.

"Yes the moon, the big, round, white thing that hangs in the sky, maybe you've seen it?" he asked.

"Maybe once or twice," she said dryly. "For instance when I walking inside from the parking lot, I'm pretty sure I saw something like that way up in the stars," she continued.

"There you go! That's the moon alright," he said.

"Although…I'd say it was more of a pinkish shade tonight, like someone tried to paint it," she thought aloud.

"Pink? Hm, hadn't noticed," Mr. Smith said walking to the large windows and glancing up into the dark night sky. "Blood on the moon…" he whispered, his once playful mood seemingly gone to be replaced by a very somber outlook.

"Blood on the moon? Didn't people use to think that it was a bad omen or something?" she asked.

"Mhm, yeah…back in the dark days they did, people claimed that nights like these were nights for black magic," he murmured as his ageless dark eyes stared up at the full moon intently. "But, that was all superstition of course, nothing to worry about I'm sure," he said jovially, dispersing the tense atmosphere.

"Uh-huh," Tyler said trying to act like she understood everything he was saying, when in reality she had hardly a clue what was going on.

She had never been very superstitious, true she avoided walking beneath ladders and threw salt over her shoulder if she spilled some, but those were just habits. She had never believed in magic, well never is a strong word. When she was a child she had always played make-believe with her friends, pretending to be witches and wizards, but that was all, she never had any interest in cults or other anything like that. True she was a devout Presbyterian, she had even managed to find a small church within walking distance of her flat, but that had never stopped her from day-dreaming of magic and aliens, and it certainly did nothing to prevent her from reading science fiction and fantasy novels.

Tyler had been born and raised as a Presbyterian, and she loved the church and her Lord, and of course she continues to do so. In college while she was getting her undergraduate degree in engineering and a minor in dance she had managed to join a Christian club who did projects in the community and all attended Sunday service together every week. It seemed as if the Lord had been watching over her throughout her life, through its ups and downs He was always there patiently waiting for her with outstretched arms of welcome and comfort. So each night she would remind herself, and God, of her love for Him by reciting different passages from the Bible. One of her favorite segments was from Psalm 18, it reads, "I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies," (Psalm 18:1-3). So even on those nights when she cried herself to sleep she knew that in the morning everything would begin to get better, because as it says in the Bible "God is with those who obey him," and Tyler had always done her best to obey the will of God by helping others, loving all those around her, giving to the poor, and so on (Psalm 15:5).

"Ah, it seems as if the show is about to begin," Mr. Smith said abruptly pulling Tyler from her thoughts.

"Hm? Oh yeah, it is, well, I hope you enjoy the show Mr. Smith," she said with a small smile at the odd man who seemed to be the craziest person she had ever met, and yet he seemed to be the most reasonable person she had met.

"You to- um…sorry but I don't really know your name," he said sheepishly, running a hand through his spiky brown locks.

"It's Tyler, Tyler Cole," she said with a small nod and a parting wave as she headed to join the crowds of people flooding towards the entrance.

"Tyler? One more question if you don't mind, which play is being performed?" he asked from across the room.

"Oh, it's a recently discovered work of Shakespeare's, it's called _Love's Labor's Won_," she said with a smile. "It's supposedly a sequel he wrote for _Love's Labor's Lost_, who knows right?" she asked with a shrug.

"Shakespeare…William Shakespeare…what is it? What am I forgetting?!" he ranted tugging at his hair and running a hand over his face.

"Of course Shakespeare, this is the new Royal Globe Theater after all, it's only fitting that it's one of his plays," Tyler explained as if it were obvious.

"The Globe Theater…" he mused. "OH! _The_ Globe Theater! God I'm so thick! I've got to much stuff crammed up here!" Mr. Smith cried, running over to the building plans that were mounted on the wall once more.

"What? What about it?" Tyler asked her curiosity piqued.

"This theater, is it an exact replica of the old one?" he asked, his eyes frantically scanning the plans.

"Well, yes, that's how Mr. Nettles designed it, well with some modern additions of course, but it's essentially the same," she said.

"This theater, it's got fourteen sides right? Just like the original? Now I know why the TARDIS brought me here! And why my screwdriver was acting up! It's this theater!" he exclaimed.

"What's so special about fourteen sides? It just boosts the acoustics doesn't it?" she asked. "Hey wait- what's a TARDIS, and you said your _screwdriver _was acting up?"

"Hm, oh, well you see it's a tad hard to explain, and I have to stop that play," he said glancing at the now closed entrance doors.

"Tell me, _now_, Mr. Smith, I hate being left in the dark, I swear- if you don't tell me what's going on right now I will kick you so hard you won't be able to even _try_ to have kids," she said sternly while grabbing his arm.

"Oh, ouch, someone's a tad violent, and my name's not Mr. Smith, I'm the Doctor," the man said looking down at her. "We really don't have time for this, I have to stop that play!" he said, failing at tugging his arm from her vice-like grip.

"Doctor who?" she asked.

"It's just the Doctor, now I am really running short on time, hah imagine that, a Time lord running late, oh how things have changed," he said his voice trailing off.

"Fine, but I'm coming with you, and you've got a lot of explaining to do once we're done," Tyler said releasing him.

He promptly took off at a sprint down the corridor leading to the backstage area.

"Hey- WAIT FOR ME!" she yelled after him.

"Are you coming Cole? Hurry up!" he said popping back around the corner.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to run in four inch stiletto heels?!" she exclaimed.

"Ah, well we have no time to waste! Come along!" he said nonetheless.

After attempting to take a few more steps in her heels she promptly kicked the offensive shoes off her feet before sprinting off after the strange, possibly completely insane, man who called himself the Doctor.

"Doctor! Where are we going?" she asked as she caught up to him.

"Well last time I was in the globe theater these…things, tried to take over the world by controlling the playwright essentially, it was very bad, but I saved the day and all so it was normal in the end, the audience was none the wiser," he explained as they charged down the corridor, making a swift turn to go into the backstage area which was deserted due to the fact that all the actors were on stage.

"So you think that whatever tried to take over the world last time is going to do it again?" she panted as they came to a momentary stop.

"Yes, yes I do, so it's our job to stop them!" he replied, his eyes scanning the area around them as if searching for something.

"What are you looking for now?"

"Well, if I'm correct, and I usually am, there should be a connection to the catwalks from here," he said. "Ah, think, think, think, where was it? Gah, I can't remember," he said tugging his hair in frustration.

"It's this way, I'm sure of it," Tyler said confidently, leading him through a door and up several flights of stairs.

"How do you know where we're going? You didn't look at the map," he asked.

"Woman's intuition," she replied with a cheeky wink.

"No, really, how do you know where we- oh," he began only to be cut off as they emerged in the catwalks, high above the audience.

"I worked as an intern for Mr. Nettles, the architect in charge of the building," she explained smugly.

"Ah, I see now," he paused, "wait so you worked for the architect? Did you notice anything strange about his behavior? Anything at all?" the Doctor asked turning towards her and staring down at her intently.

"Uh, well not really, I mean, well I'm not sure…" she trailed off.

"Look, if I'm going to stop what I think is about to happen, then you need to trust me completely, okay?" he asked gripping her shoulders.

"Um, alright," Tyler said, all her nervousness gone. "He would talk to himself a lot, and lock himself in his trailer for days, and some people claimed they heard him talking to witches, or at least he thought he was talking to witches."

"I knew it! Oh, I am brilliant!" the Doctor said triumphantly.

"Knew what?"

"Mr. Nettles his name was? Right, well Mr. Nettles wasn't talking to witches, not really anyway, he was talking to carrionites," he said with a grin.

"Carrio-a what?" Tyler asked confused.

"Carrionites, they're aliens who take the appearance of witches, it was three sisters who controlled Shakespeare last time to make him write the play that should have been lost, the play that is being performed right now," the Doctor explained hastily.

"Aliens…real aliens?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes! Why? Don't believe me? It's perfectly understandable really," he said.

"Nope."

"'Nope'? As in you don't believe me?"

"No, I believe you, I don't have much of a choice really," she said with a shrug, trying to retain her calm appearance while her insides were twisting and knotting at the thought of aliens actually existing.

"Oh…well, good then, very good," he said unsure of how to gauge her reaction. Most people freaked out or called him a liar or something along those lines, but this girl, Tyler, she just accepted the fact as if someone had told her the sky was blue. "Now, the question is who is in charge here? I have all the carrionites from before imprisoned, so, who would want to free them, and where did they get a copy of this play that was supposed to have been destroyed?" he asked, rubbing his temples.

"All excellent questions," a cackling voice said from behind them.

They spun around to see a bent elderly woman wearing a raggedy black cloak, however upon closer inspection, Tyler realized that the woman's skin was not just dark from the lack of lighting around them in the catwalks, her skin was actually a dark green color, and she had a nasty protruding nose and scraggly grey hair, and atop her head was a rusty crown that seemed to be stained with some dark brown in places.

"Now that's interesting," the Doctor said, taking a step forward, partially blocking Tyler from the strange being. "So, I take it you are the one who caused all this?" he asked.

"Yes I am, I am here to free my daughters and the rest of my subjects," said the hag.

"Interesting, but how were you able to get a hold of that play? It was destroyed, by me nonetheless," he asked.

"That was the easiest part, even you didn't realize that Shakespeare had left the original copy of the play with the clerics who copied it, and of course they ran for the hills the moment I appeared before them, everyone's scared of witches," the witch said with a smirk.

"Yeah, hi, since you both forgot me, I'd just like to say that I'm not scared of witches, witches don't exist," Tyler said while stepping from behind the Doctor.

"Don't worry dear, I haven't forgotten you, but I have bigger fish to fry," the alien witch said, her eyes scanning the Doctor.

"He's no different then I am, well maybe a little more insane, but what difference does that make?" Tyler asked, crossing her arms.

"Oh-ho, so you don't know do you? Well that's fun, shall I tell her what you really are then?" the alien asked, her eyes never leaving those of the Doctor.

"What do you mean?" she asked confusion flickering behind her hazel eyes.

"It's not important, it doesn't matter," the Doctor grumbled. "Although it is a bit impolite to not introduce yourself, and since you so clearly know who I am, why not tell us your name."

"What is my name you ask? Names are words of power, my true name is known only to myself, and only shall be. However all my subjects and enemies cower when they hear the name Queen Blackblood, the bringer of blood and fire," the old queen cackled.

Tyler's eyes flickered to the old crown on the witch queen's brow, which she had assumed to be stained with rust, however now she realized that it was dried blood that caked the crown. At this realization her stomach churned and her expression became one of disgust, she had never been a big fan of blood.

"Nice to meet you your majesty," the Doctor said with a smile. "Now then, I'll give you one chance, just one chance to leave this planet and never return," he said, his eyes cold now.

"Hah! Why would I want to leave when my victory is so close at hand?"

"Because I'm a man who won't give you a second chance, you know who I am, you know what I am capable of, so I am giving you one chance to run away and never come back," he replied.

"I refuse to flee from you, you are nothing, you are alone in this universe, you always will be," she hissed. Then in a swirl of red smoke she vanished.

"Have it your way then," he said to the spot where the Queen had been standing before turning on his heel and striding back to the stairwell that connected the catwalks to backstage.

"Doctor, what is going on?" Tyler demanded as they scurried down the stairwell.

"Well, basically, that was the Queen of the Carrionites, supposedly the mother of the three sisters I've got trapped in a shiny little orb along with all of her subjects, and she plans to free them then take over the world," he said as if discussing the daily weather.

"But how does she plan on doing that? I get that it has to do with the play and all but how exactly?" Tyler asked, still confused.

"Oh Tyler, have you never been to a play before?" he asked stopping short.

"Of course I have! I grew up performing, I love the theater!" Tyler retorted.

"Then you should know how special it is. When you get up on stage with the right words, oh the things you can do. You can make people laugh, you can make grown men weep, you can make people fall in love, the theater, all the arts for that matter, they're almost magical. 'Art is a sense of magic,' after all," the Doctor said.

"Who said that one?" Tyler asked.

"Stan Brakhage, good man, he tried to get me to work for him once, let's just say it didn't turn out to well," he said with a mild grimace.

"I don't wanna know," she said holding up her hands in front of her as if to ward him off.

"I thought so," he said with a chuckle. "Now, enough chit-chat, we need to find her and stop the play!"

Tyler nodded with a determined smile as she followed the Doctor to the backstage area. As they ran through the greenroom area she wondered aloud why no one was stopping them.

"It's because I put a perception field around us before we met Queen Blackblood, it doesn't make us invisible, but rather it makes people look anywhere but at us. Quite handy in situations like this," he explained.

"So now where are we going?" Tyler asked, still not entirely sure of what a perception field was but she realized that when it came to this bizarre man it was best to just leave things be.

"Well I am going to the lighting booth to bring up the house lights and cause some confusion, hopefully enough to stop the play, if only temporarily. When I do that you are going to go out on stage to stop the actors and to reverse the spell," the Doctor said as he began to bolt up a separate flight of stairs that presumably lead to the tech booth.

"Wait- WHAT?!" Tyler exclaimed. "I can't go out there! What would I say?"

"Yes you can, I know it," he said encouragingly.

"What makes you so certain? I'm not exactly a super genius like you, what should I say?" she asked, her eyes wide with terror.

"Just get up there and say what comes to mind, if you're passionate about something anything is possible, and as Emerson said, 'sometimes a scream is better then a thesis,'" he said with a smile before he disappeared up the stairwell.

"Oh great this is going to be a blast…" she muttered before turning away to slip backstage so she would be ready when the time came.

While she stood anxiously in the darkened wing between the velvety curtains her legs shook like leaves in the wind and her stomach twisted nervously. She had never been a rash person, almost everything she did was planned, but now when possibly the continued existence of Earth was dependent upon her, her mind was blank. She tried to organize her thoughts but it was as futile as trying to catch a cloud. Her mind was telling her to just run away as fast as she could, because the Doctor, or whoever he was, was a lunatic as was that old hag in the catwalks. Her brain told her that nothing made sense, but everything would be better in the morning. However her gut instinct was to trust the Doctor, and her heart was all for believing in him. For some strange reason she trusted this crazy man, and she knew that everything was real. Then all the lights went on in the theater, and the audience began to mutter in confusion while the actors tried to carry on the play.

Now was the moment, she had to decide. Should she listen to her brain as usual, or follow her heart down a new path of recklessness? Then, taking a deep breath, she stepped out onto the stage to face the stares of hundreds of play-goers, including the royal family. In the lighting booth way in the back above the balcony, she could just make out the Doctor, standing behind the glass window.

"Who the hell are you? What do you think you're doing?" one of the male actors hissed at her as the male lead began his monologue from center stage.

"Saving the world, you?" she whispered in reply, trying to put up a bold front.

"…Betwixt the points 763 910!" the male lead said ending his strange speech.

"No!" Tyler cried as a red tornado with monsters and witches, or rather aliens, inside began to materialize in the middle of the theater. "What have you done?!" she shouted above the screeches and howls coming from the middle of the vortex.

"What the hell?!" the actors yelled before fleeing the scene.

Shouts and screams erupted from the audience members and Tyler looked around frantically, unsure of what to do. Just then the Doctor appeared at her side.

"Tyler! You have to stop it!" he shouted.

"How? What do I do?!"

"Just follow your heart. 'Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?'" he asked.

"Will you stop it with the quotes already?!" she said exasperatedly.

"Sorry, now hurry up and save humanity before they break free!" he replied.

Drawing in a deep breath Tyler searched for the right words, she let her mind go blank, and then the words came to her.

"Wicked queen of blood and fire, we do not fear your ire! Return from whence you came, a world of darkness and flame. Back to between the points 793 910 I shall make you go!" Tyler practically screamed just to be heard above the roar of the tornado and the alien creatures within.

"No! Words of power! How is this possible?!" the queen of the carrionites demanded in a screeching voice.

"It's over! I gave you your chance already, it's to late now," the Doctor said, no signs of triumph upon his features.

"NO! I'll be back! Never turn your back Time lord!" she screamed before being sucked into the tornado to be imprisoned with the other remaining carrionites for all of time.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say," the Doctor said as the red tornado finally vanished leaving the theater and its occupants completely silent.

Then after several awkward moments of silence the entire audience broke out into applause. Apparently everyone thought it was special effects, and the Doctor and Tyler wouldn't have it any other way as the actors took the stage for their bows as if nothing had happened. As the audience applauded the actors Tyler happened to glance back at where the Doctor had been standing only to find him gone.

"Doctor?" she called, running backstage. "Where did he go?" she wondered as she followed her gut instinct and headed back out to the lobby and when she still couldn't find him she ran outside, and there he was, striding across the parking lot towards a large wooden blue box that looked like an old fashioned police telephone box. "Hey! Wait up! Doctor!" she called out, chasing after the strange man until she caught up with him as he stopped outside the box.

"Doctor…you never did explain everything…I mean…just who are you?" she panted more then a little winded from all the running she had found herself doing that evening.

"Ah, well about that…it's…complicated," he said almost at a loss for words.

"Well tell me the short version then," she demanded.

He paused for a moment as if contemplating what she had said. "How about I show you?" he asked taking out a small silver key and unlocking the door to the old fashioned police box. "Go on, have a look," he said with a knowing smile.

Tyler looked at him quizzically, then she gently pushed open the door and her eyes grew wide. She stepped inside and found herself in a very alien looking control room that could not have possibly fit inside a tiny police box. She had finally lost her mind.

"I-it's…bigger on the inside," she stammered poking her head back outside to make sure that she was still inside the police box.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," the Doctor said with a sly grin. "Welcome Miss Tyler Cole to the TARDIS, which by the way is an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, neat huh?" he explained.

"So…it's a space ship then?" she asked still in shock.

"Not just a space ship silly, it's a time machine," he said happily.

"Seriously? I'm not just dreaming or something?" she asked.

"No you are not dreaming, I can take you any place and any time you like, one condition, it has to be fantastic," he said with a grin.

"So are you an alien then?" she asked her eyes still the size of dinner plates.

"Yep," he said simply.

"I knew it! I knew aliens existed! Take that society!" she shouted punching the air gleefully. "So what kind of alien are you?" she asked eagerly.

"I'm a lord of time," he replied.

"Not pretentious at all," she said sarcastically even though she couldn't stop the smile from spreading onto her face.

"Not one bit," he agreed cheekily. "Now then, where would you like to go?" he asked pushing some random buttons and pulling a few knobs.

"You mean I can come along?" she asked hardly daring to believe him.

"If you insist I suppose I'll let you come along then," he said with a faux sigh of exhaustion.

"That's awesome!" she cried hugging the alien happily. "But one quick thing… before we go can you take me home so I can change?" she asked sheepishly.

"Of course, although we have to take you to moon so you can try walking around barefoot up there, it's a fun experience, trust me," he said while wiggling his eyebrows comically earning a laugh from Tyler.

And so, after a quick pit stop, Tyler began the adventure of a lifetime. She walked barefoot on the moon, ran away from all sorts of monsters on all sorts of space ships and planets, she had tea with King Louis XVI, danced with Alvin Ailey, cracked jokes with Mark Twain, and had all sorts of grand adventures. Of course all of which included a lot of running. She had her entire life ahead of her, and she had literally all the time in the world. In the words of Gandalf the Gray from Lord of the Rings, 'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.' Never were words so true, and Tyler had decided to let her heart do the decision making for the rest of her life, things were just more exciting that way.


End file.
